Wanna Play?
by pikapikatchu
Summary: After the hostage situation, Nick and Greg try to get on with their lives. The team still has to find the person responsible for the attacks against the police and the CSIs. Will they be able to find him before he strikes again?
1. Chapter 1

This story follows up on my other stories. Please read the other two before you start reading this one or else you might be a little confused what's going on :) thanks

You can find it at my profile or here:

first story: _"A day at the video rental store"_

**.net/s/6502149/1/A_day_at_the_video_rental_store **

second story: _"An eye for an eye"_

**.net/s/6506034/1/An_Eye_For_An_Eye **

third story: _"Boom"_

**.net/s/6516243/1/Boom**

fourth story: _"The game is on"_

**.net/s/6773108/1/The_Game_Is_On**

fifth story: "Nexus"

**.net/s/6776115/1/Nexus**

(just put the fanfiction-url in front of the urls above and you're good to go. I can't publish it as a real link, I'm sorry!)

* * *

><p>Seven days ago, Nick and Greg were taken hostage by officer Randall. He shot himself in the head and ended up in a coma. He used Nick's gun to shoot himself, which caused both Nick and Greg some trouble with internal affairs. Greg was cleared right away. Detective Keenan, the man from IA investigating the case, was sure he had no involvement in Randall's injury. Nick, on the other hand, was still a suspect. And because of this, he was on the edge all day for the last week.<p>

Greg had no idea how to deal with Nick. He knew avoiding him wasn't the best idea, especially since they had to work on a case together. But Greg just kept the conversations professional and shallow and tried to avoid being alone with Nick when he could. So far it went good. But it didn't feel good. It didn't feel right. They are friends, why should they avoid having a chat?

But Greg didn't know what else to do and Nick was too angry to even think about that. He didn't even notice how Greg tried to keep a distance between them. They were still staying at a hotel because the guy who terrorized the police department knew where they lived. It was still not safe to go home.

But today Nick didn't care. He was tired of sleeping in a hotel room. He just wanted to go home. He put his gun and his badge in his locker when Greg went in.

"Hey," was all Greg could get out of his usually so talkative mouth.

Nick nodded, not looking at Greg. He didn't realize how rude this kind of behavior was, but he didn't really care, either. "Hurry up, I'll drop you off the hotel."

Greg's car was still in the shop. With all that's happened he simply forgot to pick it up. Just now he remembered that this was on top of his to-do list. "...Drop me off? Aren't you going home?"

"Yes I am. That's why I'm not staying at that hotel any longer."

"What?" Greg closed his locker. "But this guy could come back any time and do who-knows-what!"

Nick turned around to face Greg. "I'm not afraid, Greg. I got a new gun yesterday and I will use it when I get the chance." Since Nick's private gun was evidence after being used in a homicide, he had to get a new one.

Use it when he gets the chance? What the hell was he talking about? He didn't use to be that kind of person! Greg knew how hard it was for Nick to cope with shooting one of the bad guys at a crime scene, but in his own house? "You can't be serious. Come on, Nick. We'll think of a way to feel safe in our own home again when we're not tired, exhausted and unstable, alright? But this gun... It won't help you with this guy. He'll see it coming, he'll be prepared."

"Unstable?" Nick laughed humorlessly. "I'm not unstable, alright? I just won't sit around and wait for this guy to make a move. I want to go back home and nothing will make me change my mind."

"When I wanted to go home after the attack it was you who convinced me to stay at your place, remember? Why don't you follow your own advice?"

Nick laughed again. "Great advice. That's the reason I'm not supposed to go home, in the first place, remember?"

This really hit Greg hard. He felt guilty about this and anything else, anyways, no need for Nick to shove it in his face. _Just get the hell out of here. Let him go kill himself_, Greg couldn't help but think that it was the best idea to leave Nick alone. But he didn't want to. He was worried about him.

"You're angry. I get that. I'm angry, too. But letting yourself get killed is not a good way to deal with it. Please, Nick, don't go home."

Nick averted his gaze off Greg. "You know what, find someone else to drive you to the hotel."

* * *

><p>Greg couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Nick. He knew exactly what he was going through. He was going through it a few weeks ago. The only difference, Greg thought, was that he had a friend to lean on to. Nick didn't because Greg couldn't be there for him. He wanted to, but he had no idea how. Nick could convince Greg to go home with him because he thought he was safe there. And then Nick's living room was set on fire. Greg thought it was his fault, that this terrorist was after him. If he'd gone home instead to Nick, Nick's home wouldn't have been a target, he thought. His thoughts were spinning around that subject over and over again. How did this guy know Greg was going home with Nick? It all didn't really make any sense. But more important was to him, how could he help Nick? What was it that Nick needed? A good cry? Throwing his fist against a wall? Some alone time? He had no idea.<p>

As he was lying on his bed, rolling around, trying to get at least a couple hours of sleep, his phone rang. _Oh god, I hope Nick's fine,_ he thought.

"Hello?" he said tired. "Oh, hey mom. No, you didn't wake me up, it's okay. Mhm. No, mom, I'm fine. You know I'm always happy when you do, but you don't need to come visit. I'm too busy right now, anyway. No, I'm sorry, in a few months, maybe, but I really can't right now. Hm? No, really, I'm fine. I just had a fight with a friend, is all. With Nick. Yeah, from work. Listen, mom. I just came home from work and I'm really tired, I'll call you back tomorrow, alright? Okay, bye. I love you, too."

Greg's mom was worried. He could hear that. Not only by what she said, but also by how she said it. Which made him worry about her. He didn't want to upset her. That's why he didn't even tell her about the last hostage situation. She was calling him every few days to check on him, anyways, no need to give her another reason to pack her bags and come to Vegas. And he didn't want that. He didn't NEED that. Well, actually having his mom around was a good feeling. She was a very nice, warm person. But he didn't like the way she was always looking concerned at him, crying at night when she thought he couldn't hear her and stuff like that. It was best for both of them if she stayed at home, he was sure.

He couldn't get any sleep. That phone call didn't help much, either. And then his phone rang again. "Mom, I told you, I'm fine."

"_Greg, it's me."_

Nick. It was Nick. Greg promptly sat up. "Are you okay?"

"_Yeah, everything's fine. He didn't show up."_

"Good..." Greg said in relief.

Both were silent for a minute.

"So... You can't sleep, either, huh?" Greg asked insecure.

"_Greg, I'm so sorry for... well, everything I said and did in the last few days. I really didn't mean to hurt you."_

"It's okay..."

"_No, it's not. I said horrible things. And I need you to know I didn't mean it. I'm sorry I let my anger and frustration out on you."_

"Nick, we're all on the edge right now. Really, it's okay. I accept your apology."

"_I just... The pressure's too much. IA really think I shot Randall, and Keenan wants to prove it. I just don't know what to do."_

"You didn't do anything, Nick, so they won't be able to prove anything but your innocence. Don't worry about it."

"_I really hope so."_

"And how does it feel being back home?" Greg tried to change the subject.

"_Honestly... That's part of the reason I can't sleep."_ Nick laughed. _"I keep startling up when I hear something that turns out to be nothing, just the noise that's always there, but I don't usually notice it."_

"Then why don't you drive back to the hotel? I'm sure they'll have a spare room. And if they don't you can always crash in my room."

Nick smiled. _"That's actually not a bad idea."_

* * *

><p>Nick arrived at the hotel. They had lots of spare rooms so he checked back in. He didn't get the room next to Greg, but on the same floor. After bringing his stuff into the room he decided to check if Greg was still awake so he knocked on his door.<p>

The door opened. "Hi."

"Hey Greg... Still awake?" It was a rather weird situation. It just felt weird, having a fight and then apologizing over the phone.

"Do you want to come in or... are you going to sleep?" Greg asked, not sure which answer he'd like better.

"Well I... Do you want to go to bed?"

"No..." Greg smiled. "I can't sleep, anyway."

"Alright..." Nick went in.

"Are you feeling better?" Greg was worried about Nick. He didn't sound good at the phone and he didn't really look good now, either.

"Well..." he sighed, "That depends. Did you just accept my apology to get rid of me or because you really do?"

This made Greg laugh a bit. "Of course I meant it when I said it! We're cool, don't worry."

"Good..." Nick gave him a smile and sat down on the bed. The room was rather small, it just had a bed, a desk with one chair and a bathroom. "And how come you can't get any sleep?"

Greg sat down next to Nick. "There's just too much going through my mind. My mom asked me to come home for a while..."

"How's she handling all of this?"

"She doesn't even know half of it. She knows that this guy's threatening the police since it's been all over the news. She doesn't know that he's been in my apartment or what happened at the lab," Greg explained.

Nick looked surprised. "Why didn't you tell her? I know she'd be worried, but I think she has a right to know."

Greg shook his head. "She doesn't need to know that. I don't want to upset her."

Nick nodded. He actually wanted to tell him that he needed to tell his mom, that she needed to know, that it was her right to know and get upset. But he didn't want to start a fight again. "And do you want to go to California?"

"I don't know. I guess it wouldn't be the worst idea to just leave this madness behind, right? But I can't. We need every man we can get at the moment."

"You mean at the lab? Come on, Greg. If you think it'll help you, just do it," Nick suggested.

"No, I can't. And I won't. Maybe when they caught that guy and are not swamped with work anymore, I'll take a few days off, but doing it now would be selfish." The more he was talking about it, the more attractive this idea seemed to be. Just leave Vegas for a few days and forget about all of this. But there was no way Greg would really consider doing this. He knew he was needed at the lab right now.

"I guess there's no way to change your mind, right?" Nick smiled.

* * *

><p>They stayed up for another hour. They were talking about lots of things, but not about their fight, the terrorist they had to deal with for weeks now or anything else like that. They were just having a good talk, trying to forget all their troubles for awhile.<p>

When Nick left, they only had a few hours before they had to go to work again, but they were trying to use this time to get some sleep.

Nick was walking down the corridor to his room. When he arrived there, he noticed an envelope sticking to the door. It had "Have fun" written on it. Nick smirked. He figured someone had mistaken his door with somebody else's. He picked it up, went into his room and opened the envelope.

_'Too bad your friend didn't come home tonight, I had a surprise waiting for him. But don't worry, the next week will be exciting.'_

Nick was confused. Is he getting paranoid? He was thinking about that guy threatening the police. Did he send him that? Or did someone really mistake his room with someone else's? He couldn't be sure so he called Catherine and told her about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick and Greg arrived at the lab almost six hours before they had to start their next shift. They weren't sure if the message Nick found on his hotel room's door was from the same guy that threatened the police but Nick sure as hell wouldn't take any chances with this guy. After calling Catherine he went to Greg to tell him about it and they drove to the lab. They were now waiting for Sara to finish processing the envelope and the message, hoping to give them an all-clear sign.

They were both in the break room. Greg was sitting at the desk, appearing to be quite calm, but Nick was walking up and down the room, obviously very nervous.

"Hey." Ray was entering the room. "How are you holding up?"

Nick sighed as he nodded his head. He seemed to be too nervous to even talk.

Ray observed Nick walking up and down. It took a lot to make Nick get really upset and nervous, but once he's been pushed hard enough he was REALLY upset. And Ray could now witness him being like that.

Greg, on the other hand used to get upset quite easily ever since the day at the video rental store. And now he was sitting there looking very calm. "And you?" Ray turned to Greg.

"I'm fine, thanks." Greg smiled at him, looking a bit worried to Nick and looking back at Ray.

Ray acknowledged this look and tried to calm Nick down a bit. "Do you guys want coffee?" He walked over to the coffee machine.

Greg shook his head and Nick just murmured a 'No'.

Ray fixed himself a cup and sat down at the table. "Come on Nick, sit down. You're just making us all nervous."

Nick just gave him an annoyed look and kept walking up and down.

Greg sighed. Nick seemed to be alright when he left Greg's room an hour ago. And now he looked stressed out again.

"Nick, there's nothing for you to do right now, anyway. You two should try to get some rest before your shift starts." Ray tried to convince him to do so.

"I won't leave until I know if the message is from this guy or not," Nick replied in a disturbingly calm voice, despite his nervous body language.

Greg rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted and the fact that Nick seemed to have a mental breakdown any minute now didn't help. "Nick, please. Sit down. You're killing me!"

Nick looked at Greg. Greg didn't even try to hide the fear and despair in his voice. Nick thought these feelings came from the note they received, but Greg actually was worried about Nick. Nick stopped. He looked all surprised at Greg and just sat down opposite him.

"Hi guys..." A rather uncomfortable looking Mandy entered the break room. "Sara's still processing the envelope, but she found five fingerprints on it so far. Three were too smudged, I couldn't use them, but two were usable."

They weren't paying too much attention to her at first, but when she said they found fingerprints, their heads quickly turned to look at her.

She continued, "I got a hit in AFIS. One of the fingerprints is from Dr. Pierce."

Ray raised an eyebrow. _Pierce. Of course, who else?_, he thought.

Mandy paused. They all could see she felt very distraught by what she was about to say.

"What is it, Mandy?" Ray asked.

She sighed and turned to face Greg. "It's yours, Greg. The second fingerprint."

All three men looked astonished. How is that possible?

Catherine walked by the break room and stopped, not stepping in. "Greg, could you please come with me?" she asked with a serious face impression.

* * *

><p>Catherine led Greg into her office where Brass was already waiting for them.<p>

"Sit down," she said with a soft tone.

Greg looked confused at Brass. "Is this about the fingerprint? Because I have no idea how it got there, Catherine... You have to beli-" Catherine interrupted him there.

"No, it's not about that..." She sat down.

"Then what is it?" Greg asked confused.

"Greg... After Catherine got Nick's call, we sent officers to yours and Nick's place," Brass explained.

"I don't understand. Why did you send them to our homes?"

"Didn't you read the note?" Catherine wondered.

"No."

Catherine and Brass glared at each other for a second. Why didn't Greg want to read that note?

"Well... take a look." Catherine handed it to Greg. The envelope and the note were both in a plastic evidence bag.

Greg read it, put the bag with the note on the desk and kept looking at the envelope.

"Is something wrong?" Brass asked him.

"I think that's my envelop. I wanted to send a letter before the attack, I put it on my desk to remind myself to write it." Greg was surprised to see his envelope now in an evidence bag.

Catherine took the evidence bag out of his hands. "Did you read what the note says? It says he had a surprise waiting for you. That's why we sent the officers to see if he really set anything up."

"I see..." Greg cleared his throat. "Did they find something?"

Catherine looked at Brass, indicating him to tell Greg.

"Greg, we found a hand in your apartment..." It wasn't easy for Brass to tell him, but someone had to do it.

Greg was shocked. A hand? "Do you know whose... it is?"

"Julian's working on it..." Catherine knew he wouldn't like that answer.

"Julian? Great, so we'll find out in about five weeks..." he replied sarcastically.

"That's not all of it, Greg," Brass continued, "There was a knife stuck in the hand. It's, uh..." Brass paused for a moment. He's a tough guy, but he had trouble saying what he was about to say. "It's the knife one of those guys in the video store used on... your hand."

Greg's cell phone rang, but he was too shocked to even think about answering it. He just let it ring. He gulped. He wanted to ask how it got there, but he couldn't.

"I thought it looked familiar so we checked the evidence storage... It was gone. Officer Randall was the last person to enter the storage. It's safe to say he took it." Catherine was feeling bad for Greg. They just dropped this bomb off him and it was obvious he didn't handle it very well, but he needed to know.

"But... How did he know... how did he know about that knife?" As soon as his cell phone stopped ringing, it started again.

"Randall was transferred from our police station to another a few days after we closed that case. He did some paper work for the case, that's how he knew. We know now his involvement with Dr. Pierce, our main suspect in the police terrorist case. He's counseling drug addicts and Randall was one of his patients." Catherine explained it all to him. Greg didn't know about Dr. Pierce before since he wasn't allowed to work on the case and wasn't informed about any progress they made.

Greg nodded. He didn't look Catherine or Brass in the eyes, he was just gazing into space when his cell phone was ringing once again.

"You should take that call," Catherine advised him.

He looked up to her, all distracted. "Huh? Yeah..." He went out the room to answer the phone call.

"Mom, I'll call you back, now's not a good time."

"_Greg, thank god!"_

He could hear in her voice that she's been crying. "What's wrong?" he asked shaky.


	3. Chapter 3

Nick and Greg's shift has started. Nick tried to convince Greg to go home, take a few days off and try to process all that's been happening before he went back to work, but he declined. Not even his mother's phone call was enough for him to take a break.

A body with a missing hand had been found. Of course Nick and Greg weren't allowed to work on that case. Catherine had every right to believe it was connected to Dr. Pierce, who was still MIA. Instead, Nick and Greg were assigned to a double homicide in Henderson.

The drive to the crime scene was particularly awkward. Greg didn't say a word and Nick wanted to, but knew that Greg's mother calling him was too delicate of a subject to discuss now. He was eager to find out what it was about, but he didn't have the courage to ask since it seemed to be something very serious.

Arriving at the scene they found detective Reed waiting for them. "We're waiting for the coroner. Come on." She led the two to the victims.

Greg started taking pictures of the dead bodies. One of them was around 30 years old, beaten beyond recognition. The other one appeared to have been stabbed in the back. He was in his late 40ies.

Nick stood there, not keeping his eyes off the victims. Something just felt too familiar, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"I don't see any defensive wounds," Greg stated. "Why didn't they fight back?"

"And how are they related?" Detective Reed added. "It looks so random, don't you think? A black 40 something year old and a white 30 something, one of them beaten, the other one stabbed. The only thing they seem to have in common is that they're lying here dead."

"Nick, could you take pictures of the tire marks there?" Greg pointed to tire marks a few feet away from the victims.

Nick sighed. "Greg, step away from the bodies."

"What? Why?" He was taking a sample from the younger victim's shirt. It looked like saliva so he swabbed it.

Nick grabbed Greg's arm and pulled him away from the bodies.

"What's going on, boys?" Reed asked confused.

"I'm sorry, we can't take this case, Reed."

Reed looked surprised but nodded.

"Why?" Unlike Reed, Greg didn't understand what was going on. Not for a split second would he consider this case to be related to Dr. Pierce. Why should it? Ray was working on that body, he thought.

"It could be a coincidence, but I really don't think so." Nick clenched his jaw. "Just take a look at them."

David arrived. "Hey guys, sorry it took me so long!"

"That's you and Ray, Greg!" Nick pointed at the dead bodies, causing David to back off and look surprised.

"What are you talking about, Nick?" Greg asked rather concerned.

"Just look at them, will ya? A white male in his 30ies and a black male in his 40ies. The younger one was beaten, the other one stabbed in the back. This scenery looked familiar when we got here. Now I know why, I've seen it before! I'm telling you, Greg, that psycho did this!"

* * *

><p>Nick and Greg arrived at the lab again. They were frustrated. Was there any crime that wasn't committed by Dr. Pierce? He's obviously still in Vegas, how come no one is able to find him?<p>

Catherine walked up to them. "We compared the pictures you sent us to the original crime scene photos... They're very similar. I think you're right, Nicky... He reenacted the assaults on Greg and Ray."

Nick nodded. He looked REALLY pissed. That's probably what the terrorist meant when he wrote that the next week will be exciting. Well, at least Nick hoped that's all he meant.

"Are you two gonna be alright?" Catherine asked caring, placing her hands on Nick's arm.

Nick nodded again. Nick wasn't alright, he was angry, but didn't want to admit it, although it was clearly visible. His whole body language said that he was angry.

Greg, on the other hand, didn't look angry. He probably was, but he looked like a scared little boy right now.

"Greg?" Catherine asked, "Why don't you go home and take a few days off?"

Greg shook his head. "No, I want to work."

"You're sure?"

He nodded.

Catherine shared a look with Nick. They were both worried about him, but they were also swamped with work. Right now Catherine had a new case to assign them to, but she wasn't sure they could handle it right now. "I have a new case for you guys, but if you want to take a break before you go to the next crime scene, I could send Hodges and Sara."

"No, I can take it." Nick turned to Greg. "How about you take a break and join me later?"

"I'm coming with you now, Nick," Greg replied.

Nick and Catherine shared a look again and all three went off.

* * *

><p>"Here's something weird." David held up the victim's hand. "He has cuts on his hands, as if he was handling a knife to stab someone. I'm not sure yet what to make of this, but they look fresh."<p>

"Hm. And the fibers you found?" Sara asked David. They were in the morgue, standing around the victim who has been beaten to death.

"Hodges picked it up. I have no idea what that was, but he'll find out, I'm sure." David turned the body around. "You see that?"

Sara used a flash light to look at the spot David was pointing at. "What is this?" She used a tweezer to pick it up. "It looks like a chip of paint."

"Greg collected saliva from his shirt, maybe this will get us closer to who did it." David wrote something down.

"We're pretty sure we know who did this, David. We need to find out where he is."

"Well, hopefully the fibers and this paint chip will help us with that. But in the meantime... Here's what I can tell you. He was beaten to death. COD is a brain hemorrhage. He also had a high blood alcohol level, that might explain why he didn't fight back. I think he was unconscious when he was beaten." David presented the case as professional as he could, but he thought it was a really weird case.

"How about the stab wound?" Sara turned around to the other body.

David held up one of the victim's arm. "He was strapped down when he was still alive, he doesn't have any defensive wounds, either, but he was stabbed in the back, I didn't expect him to have any. But it looks like they strapped him down to stab him."

"Any fibers on him?"

"The same fibers the other victim had on and some dirt. Hodges is on it. It's not from where you found them, they were definitely moved after they were killed."

* * *

><p>"Please tell me you're done with the saliva we found." Sara went into the DNA lab with a frozen smile.<p>

"I am," Julian said rather disinterested. "There you go."

Sara took the report out of his hand. "What? Are you sure you didn't mix up the samples?"

Julian gave her a look she's never seen before. She figured this was his "death stare" or something like that, but she wasn't intimidated by it. "What do you mean, did I mix up the samples? My work is ALWAYS precise! I'm working here for a good reason, because I'm one of the best DNA techs in the country. Probably the best in Nevada," he said condescending.

Sara decided not to comment on that. She tried not to grin, but couldn't keep the corners of her mouth down. "Alright, maestro, calm down. I just mean the result is confusing. Why would one victim spit on another one? That doesn't really make sense."

"Boy am I glad it's not my job to find out." He turned around and went on processing other samples.

"And were you able to ID the victims?"

"Yup." He handed her their profiles.

"It's always nice talking to you, Jules..." Sara went out, not seeing the annoyed face Julian had when she called him that. But knowing it was there made her feel good.


	4. Chapter 4

Greg and Nick were driving to their next assigned crime scene. It wasn't a homicide, for a change. Someone broke into a home and they had to find out who it was. It was nice to know they weren't driving to another dead body.

"Are you sure you want to work today? You didn't say anything since we left the lab." Nick didn't take the silence anymore, he just had to say something.

"No, I'm fine," was all Greg said.

Nick sighed. "What about your mother? Is she alright?" He finally had the courage to ask Greg about the phone call. He knew something bad had happened, but nobody told him what it was.

Greg looked at Nick. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you what this call was about, I just couldn't talk about it..."

"No, it's alright. You don't have to tell me."

"She received a package... With one of my shirts. And... It had blood on it." Greg didn't look at Nick when he told him, but Nick did look at him.

"...What?"

"I had to tell her everything. And now she's worried sick."

"Well for what it's worth, I think it's good that she knows. We're getting closer to that guy every day, I'm sure we'll find him soon." Nick didn't really believe what he said, but he had no idea how to comfort Greg. "Whose blood do you think it is?"

"Mine, probably. When he attacked me I blacked out after he hit me in the head. It was probably enough time to take a shirt and stain it with my blood. But we'll know for sure tomorrow. She brought it to the police, they'll process it and send it over afterwards."

Nick nodded. "If he wanted to kill us, we'd already be dead. Don't worry too much, alright?"

* * *

><p>They arrived at the house they were supposed to process. When they arrived they saw a police car standing in front of the house, but there was no officer.<p>

"You're sure that's the address?" Nick asked Greg.

"Yeah, Catherine wrote it down."

"Where's the officer?" They both got out of the car. "Did Catherine say which officer was supposed to meet us here?" Nick asked.

"Officer Miller, I think."

"Alright, stay behind me." Nick put his gun out of the holster and went into the house, Greg followed. He didn't have his gun with him since he assumed it was just a simple breaking and entering case. Of course that didn't mean a suspect wouldn't come back to the crime scene. They did that more often than some people would think. But they expected an officer to be here and back them up in case something was wrong. And with all that's happened, a gun was the least Greg would want to have around him, as contradicting as it may sound. Guns never helped him feel safe.

"Officer Mitchell?" Nick called for the officer. Usually the officer was waiting for them in front of the crime scene tape, but he was nowhere to be found. They prepared for the worst.

The first floor was clear. They didn't find officer Miller nor a suspect.

"I'll check upstairs. You stay here..." Nick went up.

* * *

><p>He didn't find anyone there, either, so he decided to get back downstairs, then he heard Greg scream 'Nick!'. He hurried downstairs to check on him.<p>

"Greg, where are you?" He wasn't there! Nick was getting really worried now, what happened down here? And why did he tell Greg to stay there all alone?

"I'm here! Outside!"

Nick rushed outside to find Greg helping officer Miller get up. Next to them was a dead body.

"What happened here?" Nick asked in surprise.

"When I arrived at the scene I heard someone in the house calling for help, so I went in. The next thing I remember is waking up out here..." Officer Miller explained.

"I think he was assaulted with a taser," Greg said, looking at Nick.

"And who is this?" Nick asked.

"I don't know." Miller replied.

"Let's call David to find out who he is and what he's doing here." Nick pulled out his cell phone.

* * *

><p>When David arrived, Nick and Greg were already done processing the first floor.<p>

"David, out here." Nick showed him where the body was.

"I'd say he's been dead for almost a week. Single gun shot wound to the head. The blood spatter is suggesting he died here. Let's get him to the morgue."

* * *

><p>Greg was collecting the bullet fragment David was able to pull out of the victim's head. He collected a DNA sample and took his finger prints. Since the house belonged to an old lady who didn't even live there anymore, they had no idea who he was and how he got there. She didn't rent the house out to anyone and she didn't know that man, either.<p>

"He doesn't have any GSR on his hands, I don't think that was a suicide," David concluded.

"There wasn't a gun with him, anyway. And someone attacked officer Miller, probably the murderer."

"But why would he come back days after he murdered someone there?"

"You're right, doesn't really make much sense... Well, thanks David, I'll get this to the lab." Greg held up the samples he just took and turned around.

Ray entered. "David, I'd like to take another look at our one handed victim..."

"I better get going," Greg said. He knew Catherine didn't want him or Nick to be present when someone's discussing the Dr. Pierce case and he respected that.

"Wait a second, Greg." Ray stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Yeah?"

"Is this your victim?" Ray asked with surprise.

"Uh-uh. Why?"

"That's Dr. Pierce. Our main suspect."

Greg stared at the dead man lying on the cold steel desk. Was this the man who attacked him and made his life living hell for the past few weeks? He didn't know what to think, how to feel. He was confused, overwhelmed, shocked. "No..." he finally said, "This can't be him. David says he's been dead for a week!"

Ray looked over to David who nodded confirming. "Greg, I've talked to him. I know it's him. Please, hand me those samples."

* * *

><p>Greg and Nick were sitting in the break room. A day has passed since they found Dr. Pierce's dead body. They were reassigned to another case and waiting for test results. Greg was also waiting for the bloody shirt his mom received yesterday.<p>

"Greg." Catherine was standing in the doorway. "Come on."

* * *

><p>The shirt that was sent to Greg's mom was lying on the light table.<p>

"This is yours, right?" Catherine asked to make sure.

Greg nodded with his arms crossed. "Is it my blood?"

"It is..." Catherine said, "And that's it. We didn't find anything else on it. Well, except from a few strands of your hair, but that's no wonder since you were bleeding from your head."

"Nothing to tie Dr. Pierce to this?"

"No. And the post stamp says it was sent four days ago. Dr. Pierce has been dead for nine days." Catherine was as confused about this as Greg was. What did that mean? Wasn't Dr. Pierce as much involved in all of this as they thought or did one of his minions kill him because they had enough?

But finding his dead body, they all were sure, was not a reason to celebrate. They still weren't safe. The note Nick received was placed on his door after Pierce was already dead. Someone's not done yet.

Sara rushed in. "Hey guys. I think we have a lead! Remember the tire marks we found at the scene with the double homicide? The victims resembling Greg and Ray?" Sara was too excited to think about whether or not it was okay to say that in front of Greg. "It's from a pick-up truck. And the paint chip I found on one of the vic's clothes? Apparently it's a rare car paint. It's not what pick-up trucks are painted with usually. It was custom-made!"

Catherine looked at her surprised. "That sounds good, did you get a name?"

"Well there is only one auto shop that used this paint in Vegas. Don's Auto Shop." She handed Catherine some files for her to take a look at. "They had a few cars painted with this paint. Five pick-up trucks."

Greg got chills all over his body. Only five pick-up trucks with this kind of paint? This sounded almost too good to be true!

"Five? Wow... Good job, Sara!" Catherine said proud.

"Yeah, five would be good. But what do you say when I tell you they had one particular pick-up truck that has a carpet on the loading space?"

"I'd say that's pretty unusual, but I would also wonder what this had to do with our case," Catherine said with a smile on her face.

"And what if I told you that I found fibers on both the victim's clothes that belong to this carpet?"

Catherine looked at her in disbelief. What was Sara trying to say? They were looking for the wrong guy for weeks and now that he turned up dead all it needed to find the man responsible for all this horror was a few fibers and a paint chip? "...And you're sure?"

Sara handed her a photo of the suspect. "Kyle Dunbrook. He's the owner of the custom-made pick-up truck and according to her parents he dated Dr. Pierce's receptionist for over a year. He tried out to be a police man three times but never passed the acceptance test for the police academy. The second time he tried out for the test was when officer Randall passed it, that may be a possible connection between the two. I'm telling you, Catherine, it would be a really weird coincidence if he's innocent!"


	5. Chapter 5

Catherine, Ray, Sara and Captain Brass gathered to discuss Kyle Dunbrook's involvement in this case.

"It all makes perfect sense. He wanted to be a police officer but never passed the test. That's probably how he developed a grudge against the police station. He has the connection, he has a motive and the pick-up truck ratted him out," Sara said rather amused. She loved that part of the job, when they nailed a suspect down and he didn't even know it yet.

"Okay, but we got to be really careful with this guy. He probably expects us to show up. I wouldn't even be surprised if he placed the fibers and the paint on his victims to put us off." Brass was worried they might run into an ambush. "When we pay him a visit, you CSIs all stay home, you got it? Let the swat team handle this situation."

They nodded reluctantly. They would've liked to be there when they nail him down, but they also understood why that wasn't a good idea.

* * *

><p>Kyle Dunbrook was sitting in his living room. The blinds on his windows were down, the light and TV were off. There was darkness and silence in the room. It smelled like some chemicals and gunpowder mixed with stained blood and a hint of gasoline. The place was rather messy. Dirty clothes, dirty dishes, empty gasoline cans, empty chemical bottles, all that stuff was lying around on the floor, on the couch, on the desk. It was everywhere. His "lab", however, was tidy. He made sure it was always cleaned up. It was almost an obsession to keep his little lab clean all the time. And his guns. He had lots of them, all unregistered and dangerous, ready to be used. A few explosives were lying around the house, too, he preferred building the bombs himself.<p>

Dunbrook himself was a rather handsome, but crazy-looking man. He was good-looking but had something crazy in his eyes. Right now he was dressed up, looking real good. Because he was waiting for the police to arrive and he wanted to look good for them.

His phone was ringing. He grinned. He suspected the police to try to distract him while they were storming his home. Or maybe just check if he's at home and it's worth the trouble. He picked up the phone and said, "I'm home. Come in," and hung up again.

He was sitting there, waiting for them to enter, looking at peace with a soothe smile on his face.

The swat team kicked down the door, pointing their guns at him. "Get on the ground!"

But Dunbrook was still sitting there, watching them as they entered.

Three officers stayed with Dunbrook while the others searched the house for accomplices, traps, bombs and whatever they might find. But they found nothing.

"On the ground, now!" a swat team member yelled again.

Dunbrook slowly stood up, put his hands behind his head, got down on his knees and finally laid on the ground. He didn't fight back as they cuffed him, he just had a devilish grin on his face.


	6. Chapter 6

The CSIs went through every police officer's record that has been assigned to the cases the pictures were taken at, trying to find anything that could link them to Dunbrook. They were halfway done and had already five officers to consider persons of interest.

After working through dozens of records, they had seven officers that had a connection to Dunbrook, Pierce or Randall.

Five of them attended the police academy at the time Randall did, one of them lived nearby Dunbrook and one has a drug addicted sister who, after she was booked for a DUI, took counseling. It didn't say where, but they thought there might be a chance she was treated by Pierce. 

"Seven. That's a good number," Nick said. They all sat around a light table when Brass stormed in with a face that let them all know he was really pissed.

"You're investigating my men now?" he asked furious.

"We have reason to believe the pictures were shot from a police officer, Jim. How do you know, anyway?" Catherine asked surprised.

"Your ass-kissing DNA tech told me, he thinks sucking up to me will get him anywhere. But that's not the point! Why do you think one of my men has anything to do with this?"

"Well first of all, Randall was 'one of your men', too, and he had something to do with this. Second, look at the pictures. Whoever took them was very close to us, he must've been behind the crime scene tape, only so many people are allowed back there."

Brass sighed. "Alright... What do you got?"

Catherine handed him the records of the seven officers. "Do you know any of them privately?"

"Officer Cramer." He pointed on his picture. "There's no way he's involved in this. He's a great guy, has three kids, a loving wife. No way."

Catherine acknowledged Brass' opinion but knew that this didn't rule officer Cramer out as a possible suspect. "And the others?"

"I don't really know them that well. I don't think anyone of them would be able to do something horrible like that, but I wouldn't have thought Randall would be, either."

"You know we'll have to talk to them. Everyone of them..."

* * *

><p><p>

"How well do you know officer Randall?" Sara asked officer Hu. They were sitting in the police station lobby.

"Not much. I know him from the police academy, but after the graduation we parted ways. He worked in Vegas and I worked in Reno. I was transferred to Vegas again last year." Officer Hu sipped from his coffee. "But even at the academy we weren't friends or anything like that. We hardly ever talked. He was a weird guy."

"What do you mean by that?" Sara took some notes.

"I don't know. He was hanging with the wrong crowd, it was even rumored he had friends that did time in prison. I didn't want to get involved with all of this."

"So who did he hang out with at the academy?"

"He wasn't very popular." Officer Hu cleared his throat. "But there are a few officers from this station. They hung around all the time."

* * *

><p><p>

"Officer Langley. I heard you're good friends with officer Randall? You even visited him in hospital." Nick was standing in front of officer Langley sitting in Nick's office.

"Yeah, so?" Officer Langley had a very aggressive tone in his voice.

"So Randall is also friends with Dr. Pierce and Kyle Dunbrook. You know these two, too?"

"Do I have to talk to you?" The officer didn't even look at Nick.

"Is there a reason you don't want to?"

"Well yeah. You're the reason Roger's in this condition in the first place. You know, you're lucky I'm wearing my uniform..." Langley said while clenching his fist.

"Woah, easy there. Do you want to be booked for threatening an officer?" Nick didn't really care about what Langley said, he knew it wasn't his fault.

Langley laughed. "Threatening an officer? You're no officer! You sit around the lab all day and when you do get out sometime you count on US getting your ass back home safe!"

"Okay, listen. I'm sorry for what happened to you friend. I understand you're angry and frustrated, I really know the feeling, believe me. But we're trying to find out who really is responsible for what happened to your friend, and you know it's not me. He was taken advantage of. We know Dunbrook is the one responsible, but he didn't act alone. Do you have any idea who else might be in on this?" Nick tried the understanding way to get through Langley. Nick did know what he was going through. Only that his friend wasn't in a coma, he died.

"Roger is a good guy. IA might've cleared you, but I don't believe he shot himself." That's all Langley had to say. Nick tried to get more out of him, but he refused to talk.

* * *

><p><p>

Officer Roger Randall was coming out of his coma. Ray went to the hospital to talk to him, hoping he'd tell him enough to arrest everyone involved in this case.

"Officer Randall? I'm Ray Langston, you wanted to talk to me, do you remember?"

Randall nodded weakly. Luckily for the CSIs, he was fine. At least as good as can be after shooting a bullet through your head. He opened his eyes to see Ray.

"Why did you shoot yourself?"

Randall didn't answer. He looked around a bit and closed his eyes again, but he wasn't sleeping.

"Officer Randall, please concentrate. This is important. Why did you do this? Who sent you to the lab? What does he want from me?"

Randall turned his back around Ray, pretending to be asleep.

"Alright, if you think that's a good idea, go on with it. So far all you did was take two CSIs hostage and blow your own brains out. That will give you some jail time, but you'll get out. But if you don't want to talk, I'll do my best to convince the jury that you're responsible for some of the deaths Dunbrook's responsible for." Ray stood up and made his way to the door.

"Wait..." Randall said weakly.

* * *

><p><p>

"Langely's lawyered up. But I didn't really get the feeling he has anything to do with it. He's just angry about what happened to his friend. If he was in on it, I think he would've known. It's just a hunch, but I'd say he's not our guy." Nick put a folder at the light table the CSIs gathered around.

"Officer Hu doesn't strike me as the terrorizing type. He seems like a nice guy and a good cop. He said he wasn't friends with Randall and that he hung around with shady people," Sara explained, "Nothing on officer O'Hara, either. Her sister wasn't Dr. Pierce's patient."

"Same here. I doubt the officer I interviewed have anything to do with this. What about you, Greg?" Catherine asked her colleague.

"Well, officer James, I don't know about him..." Greg gave Catherine James' record.

"He lives nearby Dunbrook? Why do you think he might have something to do with it?"

"I'm not sure, it's just the way he talked and reacted, you know? I think he's worth taking a closer look at, Catherine."

"Alright. Any word from Brass and Ray?"

Sara looked through the folders lying on the light table. "Ray called a few minutes ago, he's driving back to the lab and has some interesting news, he said."

Brass entered the room, followed by Ray.

"That was quick!" Sara smiled.

Ray had a smile on his face as well, but Brass frowned.

"What's wrong, Jim?" Nick asked curious.

Brass sighed. "I just come back from talking to Cramer..." The way he said this, everybody knew he didn't have good news. "I had to arrest him..."

They all looked surprised at him.

"As we got into talking, it turned out he knew about what happened all along... He swears he's not involved, but he knew and didn't say anything."

"I'm sorry, Jim..." Catherine put her hand on his shoulder.

Brass nodded. "Anyways... He says at least two more officers are involved in this. He doesn't know who and is not sure if there are more, though."

"Then we were wrong. We only have one suspicious officer."

"Maybe I can help you out." Ray came closer to the group. "Randall was quite talkative today."

"Really? What did he tell you?"

"He's talking about three officers being involved. Smith, Hernandez and O'Hara." Ray handed Catherine the officer's records.

"These three? Two of them weren't even on our list, and I don't see how O'Hara is connected with Dunbrook," Nick asked confused.

"But they all were at the crime scenes at some point. And Randall worked at the police station, he says he approached them one day, told them about this plan and they wanted to join."

"But why? What do they gain from it?" Sara asked her colleague.

"Money. They got a few thousands of dollars for the pictures by Dunbrook. I don't want to even think about how much they got for a murder..." While Ray explained what Randall just told him, Brass called the officers.

"I can't believe it. Hernandez was with us on our last scene. He seems like such a nice guy." Sara was bummed by this. They had to trust the officers with their lives and now they found out that some of them would murder for a few bucks?

"They're not answering their phones and no one saw them at the station for the last few hours," Brass told them concerned as his phone started ringing.

"This is Brass. Alright. Thank you." He got off the phone, turning to the CSIs again. "They're all assigned to a crime scene the day shift is working on. I'll pay them a visit..." Brass walked out.

At the same time, Catherine got a text message on her phone. "A 419 out in Henderson. Four bodies. Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

Once again, the team gathered in the break room.

Greg was sitting next to Sara, Ray opposite her and Nick was walking up and down the room again, making them all even more nervous than they already were.

"What's taking her so long?" Nick asked impatiently. They were waiting for Catherine to tell them some news on what's just happened.

"Nick, please, sit down," Sara asked politely.

Like always, Nick ignored it and kept walking up and down. Much to his fellow's annoyance.

"Nick, we're all anxious, but you're making it worse with walking up and down like that. Sit down!" Greg wasn't as polite as Sara, he was just annoyed. He almost yelled at Nick, much to his surprise.

"Alright..." The minute he wanted to sit down, Catherine walked in, causing him to keep standing up.

She entered the room with a very serious face. "It was the right decision to call us, Nick. Saliva on the envelope is from Dunbrook."

"Okay..." Nick sighed. "And what does the note say?"

"It's just a few pictures, but no note." Catherine took out copies of the pictures from a folder and put them on the table.

"That's pictures from every crime scene involving Dunbrook..." Sara said in disbelief.

"And that's my car..." Greg picked up the picture.

"And that would be us..." Catherine pulled one more picture out of the folder. It showed the whole team at a crime scene that didn't involve Dunbrook. At least they thought it didn't.

"But how? How did he take a picture like that and how did it end up in Nick's house?" Ray asked a question every one of them had on their minds.

"Whose finger print was that on the envelope?" Nick asked, looking at Catherine. When he found the envelope, a finger print was visible on it. Whoever put the envelope there dusted it for fingerprints, making this one visible to Nick.

"Not Dunbrook's. And we didn't get a hit in the database, either." Catherine sat down next to Ray.

"What does this all mean? He obviously wants to send a message, but what is it?" Sara was as confused as the rest of the team.

Catherine sighed. "I have no idea... But we have to find out before something happens again... We'll have to ask Dunbrook about it."

"But he didn't give you anything useful before, why should he now?" Ray asked.

"Maybe he just didn't want to talk to us." Brass entered the room, looking at Nick and Greg.

Catherine turned around to see him looking at the two. "No, Jim, we'll try again."

Nick noticed the looks they shared. "Catherine, if it helps the case, I'll go talk to him."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Nicky..."

"No, Catherine, we have to find out what he's up to. We both need to talk to him." Greg joined the conversation, causing everyone to look quite surprised at him. The last few weeks Greg wasn't like he used to be. He seemed to be quite intimidated by Dunbrook and his actions, and now he wanted to face him?

"Are you sure you want to do that, Greg?" Sara asked concerned. He didn't tell Nick, but he told her that hearing Dunbrook's voice again was quite scary. She figured talking to him would not be a good idea, then.

"I think I have to. Look at those pictures. He's threatening us. We don't know if he placed the envelope himself before he was arrested or if someone else did it for him, we can't take that risk."

"Greg's right. We have to find out what he's up to and if he only wants to talk to Nick and Greg, we'll have to do it," Brass said confident. He did care about Nick and Greg, but he also knew that they sometimes had to do things they don't like to do in order to catch a criminal.

* * *

><p>Nick and Greg entered the interrogation room. They were accompanied by Brass. Dunbrook was already sitting there, waiting for them. Seeing him like that for the first time was a weird feeling. Nick was feeling excited, but also unease. They finally caught the guy, that's what he was excited about. But they also suspected him to have a plan he's able to realize from inside the prison.<p>

Greg didn't share Nick's excitement. Sure, he was glad they finally had Dunbrook behind bars, but being face to face with him was just scary. He knew Dunbrook couldn't do anything to him in here, but it wasn't a good feeling seeing him that close.

When the three arrived, Dunbrook jumped off his seat with an excited grin on his face. "Finally!"

Greg winced when Dunbrook stood up, but tried to hide it. Dunbrook noticed, though, and smiled at him.

"Sit down!" Nick said demanding.

Dunbrook sat down again, as did the others.

Nick pulled out the pictures Catherine showed them in the break room and placed them on the desk. "What's this about?"

Dunbrook didn't keep his eyes off Nick and Greg. He didn't look at the pictures.

"Look at the pictures," Nick said rather impatient.

"I'm sorry if I've been a little bit rough when we first met..." Dunbrook said to Greg, "But I hope my present made up for it. The one I sent to you and the one I sent to your mother..."

"Let's cut the crap, alright? If you're trying for insanity in the courtroom, this act won't get you there. You're not obsessed with these two, you're just a sicko who couldn't make it to the police academy and now has a grudge on cops." Brass was losing his temper with Dunbrook. He's shown himself to be aggressive and full of hatred, now he was trying to convince them he was just obsessed with Nick and Greg and did all of this to meet them, Brass thought.

"Look, you wanted to talk to us, you said so yourself. Now's your shot. You can either sit here and look at us or talk. If you don't talk, we'll leave and we won't come back." Nick was getting impatient.

"Alright..." Dunbrook cleared his throat. "I'll talk. What did you feel when you saw that envelope sitting on your kitchen counter?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Is this all you have to say?"

"Answer the question, then I'll answer yours."

"Surprised, worried, I don't know. Your turn." Nick was really getting impatient, he would've left the room by now if he didn't think Dunbrook might have something useful to say.

Dunbrook grinned. "You're the science nerds, you should be able to find out yourselves, I thought. But since you can't, I'll help you..."

Nick and Greg looked at each other, hoping he'd tell them something good.

"Do you guys really think I'm stupid? Don't you think I was a little easy to catch in the end? You spent weeks not knowing who I was, and I make that big a mistake transporting two dead bodies? You're quite naïve, really..." He laughed devilish.

"Okay... So why did you let yourself get caught?" Greg asked, trying not to let the fear shine through his voice.

"Because..." Dunbrook leaned forward. "I wanted to meet you guys."

Without realizing it, Greg leaned back.

Nick didn't. He didn't feel intimidated by this guy. "How did you get access to our homes without any signs of a break-in?"

"Wow. You finally have me in custody and ask these boring questions? Come on, be a little more creative." Dunbrook laughed while leaning back again.

"Okay, then why don't you tell us what these pictures mean. Who placed them in my house and why?" Nick asked in an aggressive tone.

"Oh, they don't mean anything. Just that this isn't the end." Dunbrook grinned.

* * *

><p>The team gathered in front the interrogation room. Sara, Greg and Langston were sitting on a bench and Nick and Catherine were standing in front of them.<p>

"Archie said that the pictures were taken with a cell phone, he's trying to narrow it down to a few cell phone models, but he can't tell if he can find out which phone exactly it is," Catherine said while passing around enhanced copies of the pictures. "Other than that, I don't think there's anything to find out who took these pictures."

Ray put his glasses down to rub his eyes. "And the fingerprint?"

"It's all we got, but we don't have anyone to compare it to."

Nick sighed. "That's it? What are we supposed to do now? Waiting for his accomplices to make a move?"

"I don't like that as much as you do, Nicky, but at the moment there's nothing we can do. We can try talking to him again, but I doubt he'll say anything useful." Catherine was sick of this game of Dunbrook's as much as the rest of the group.

"Okay, let's just think this through. Who would be able to get that close to us working a crime scene without being suspicious?" Sara tried to keep their hopes up.

"Police officers, other CSIs, the coroners... Maybe crime scene clean up," Greg replied.

"Exactly. I don't think any civilian would come that close."

"What are you implying? That there's another dirty cop?" Nick asked curious.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? He's able to convince one cop to help him pursue his plans, why not another one?"

"The thought of it is just horrible, but I'm afraid you might be right..." Catherine stood up. "But all their finger prints are in the system, how does that fit in your theory?"

"This fingerprint could belong to anybody. Why did he dust it, anyway? He wants us to see it. We shouldn't waste any time thinking about that."

"Sara's right. He's playing with us. We should find out which officer could be involved," Greg said, looking around the group.

"Brass' not gonna like that. But let's find any links to Dunbrook, Pierce or Randall." Catherine turned around to walk away.

"Maybe we should start with Miller. Could be too convenient to be attacked at Dr. Pierce's murder scene, don't you think?"


	8. Chapter 8

The CSIs went through every police officer's record that has been assigned to the cases the pictures were taken at, trying to find anything that could link them to Dunbrook. They were halfway done and had already five officers to consider persons of interest.

After working through dozens of records, they had seven officers that had a connection to Dunbrook, Pierce or Randall.

Five of them attended the police academy at the time Randall did, one of them lived nearby Dunbrook and one has a drug addicted sister who, after she was booked for a DUI, took counseling. It didn't say where, but they thought there might be a chance she was treated by Pierce.

"Seven. That's a good number," Nick said. They all sat around a light table when Brass stormed in with a face that let them all know he was really pissed.

"You're investigating my men now?" he asked furious.

"We have reason to believe the pictures were shot from a police officer, Jim. How do you know, anyway?" Catherine asked surprised.

"Your ass-kissing DNA tech told me, he thinks sucking up to me will get him anywhere. But that's not the point! Why do you think one of my men has anything to do with this?"

"Well first of all, Randall was 'one of your men', too, and he had something to do with this. Second, look at the pictures. Whoever took them was very close to us, he must've been behind the crime scene tape, only so many people are allowed back there."

Brass sighed. "Alright... What do you got?"

Catherine handed him the records of the seven officers. "Do you know any of them privately?"

"Officer Cramer." He pointed on a picture. "There's no way he's involved in this. He's a great guy, has three kids, a loving wife. No way."

Catherine acknowledged Brass' opinion but knew that this didn't rule officer Cramer out as a possible suspect. "And the others?"

"I don't really know them that well. I don't think anyone of them would be able to do something horrible like that, but I wouldn't have thought Randall would be, either."

"You know we'll have to talk to them. Everyone of them..."

* * *

><p>"How well do you know officer Randall?" Sara asked officer Hu. They were sitting in the police station lobby.<p>

"Not much. I know him from the police academy, but after the graduation we parted ways. He worked in Vegas and I worked in Reno. I was transferred to Vegas again last year." Officer Hu sipped from his coffee. "But even at the academy we weren't friends or anything like that. We hardly ever talked. He was a weird guy."

"What do you mean by that?" Sara took some notes.

"I don't know. He was hanging with the wrong crowd, it was even rumored he had friends that did time in prison. I didn't want to get involved with all of this."

"So who did he hang out with at the academy?"

"He wasn't very popular." Officer Hu cleared his throat. "But there are a few officers from this station. They hung around all the time."

* * *

><p>"Officer Langley. I heard you're good friends with officer Randall? You even visited him at the hospital." Nick was standing in front of officer Langley sitting in Nick's office.<p>

"Yeah, so?" Officer Langley had a very aggressive tone in his voice.

"So Randall is also friends with Dr. Pierce and Kyle Dunbrook. You know these two, too?"

"Do I have to talk to you?" The officer didn't even look at Nick. His body language was clearly saying 'I don't want to be here'.

"Is there a reason you don't want to?"

"Well yeah. You're the reason Roger's in this condition in the first place. You know, you're lucky I'm wearing my uniform..." Langley said while clenching his fist.

"Woah, easy there. Do you want to be booked for threatening an officer?" Nick didn't really care about what Langley said, he knew it wasn't his fault.

Langley laughed. "Threatening an officer? You're no officer! You sit around the lab all day and when you do get out sometime you count on US getting your ass back home safe!"

"Okay, listen. I'm sorry for what happened to you friend. I understand you're angry and frustrated, I really know the feeling, believe me. But we're trying to find out who really is responsible for what happened to your friend, and you know it's not me. He was taken advantage of. We know Dunbrook is the one responsible, but he didn't act alone. Do you have any idea who else might be in on this?" Nick tried the understanding way to get through Langley. Nick did know what the officer was going through. Only that his friend wasn't in a coma, he died.

"Roger is a good guy. IA might've cleared you, but I don't believe he shot himself." That's all Langley had to say. Nick tried to get more out of him, but he refused to talk.

* * *

><p>Officer Roger Randall was coming out of his coma. Ray went to the hospital to talk to him, hoping he'd tell him enough to arrest everyone involved in this case.<p>

"Officer Randall? I'm Ray Langston, you wanted to talk to me, do you remember?"

Randall nodded weakly. Luckily for the CSIs, he was fine. At least as good as can be after shooting a bullet through your head. He opened his eyes to see Ray.

"Why did you shoot yourself?"

Randall didn't answer. He looked around a bit and closed his eyes again, but he wasn't sleeping.

"Officer Randall, please concentrate. This is important. Why did you do this? Who sent you to the lab? What does he want from me?"

Randall turned his back around Ray, pretending to be asleep.

"Alright, if you think that's a good idea, go on with it. So far all you did was take two CSIs hostage and blow your own brains out. That will give you some jail time, but you'll get out. But if you don't want to talk, I'll do my best to convince the jury that you're responsible for some of the deaths Dunbrook's responsible for." Ray stood up and made his way to the door.

"Wait..." Randall said weakly.

* * *

><p>"Langely's lawyered up. But I didn't really get the feeling he has anything to do with it. He's just angry about what happened to his friend. If he was in on it, I think he would've known. It's just a hunch, but I'd say he's not our guy." Nick put a folder at the light table the CSIs gathered around.<p>

"Officer Hu doesn't strike me as the terrorizing type. He seems like a nice guy and a good cop. He said he wasn't friends with Randall and that he hung around with shady people," Sara explained, "Nothing on officer O'Hara, either. Her sister wasn't Dr. Pierce's patient."

"Same here. I doubt the officers I interviewed have anything to do with this. What about you, Greg?" Catherine asked her colleague.

"Well, officer James, I don't know about him..." Greg gave Catherine James' record.

"He lives nearby Dunbrook? Why do you think he might have something to do with it?"

"I'm not sure, it's just the way he talked and reacted, you know? I think he's worth taking a closer look at, Catherine."

"Alright. Any word from Brass and Ray?"

Sara looked through the folders lying on the light table. "Ray called a few minutes ago, he's driving back to the lab and has some interesting news, he said."

Brass entered the room, followed by Ray.

"That was quick!" Sara smiled.

Ray had a smile on his face as well, but Brass frowned.

"What's wrong, Jim?" Nick asked curious.

Brass sighed. "I just come back from talking to Cramer..." The way he said this, everybody knew he didn't have good news. "I had to arrest him..."

They all looked surprised at him.

"As we got into talking, it turned out he knew about what happened all along... He swears he's not involved, but he knew and didn't say anything. He even received hush money."

"I'm sorry, Jim..." Catherine put her hand on his shoulder.

Brass nodded. "Anyways... He says at least two more officers are involved in this. He doesn't know who and is not sure if there are more, though."

"Then we were wrong. We only have one suspicious officer."

"Maybe I can help you out." Ray came closer to the group. "Randall was quite talkative today."

"Really? What did he tell you?"

"He's talking about three officers being involved. Smith, Hernandez and O'Hara." Ray handed Catherine the officer's records.

"These three? Two of them weren't even on our list, and I don't see how O'Hara is connected with Dunbrook," Nick asked confused.

"But they all were at the crime scenes at some point. And Randall worked at the police station, he says he approached them one day, told them about this plan and they wanted to join."

"But why? What do they gain from it?" Sara asked her colleague.

"Money. They got a few thousands of dollars for the pictures, it came from Dunbrook's pocket. I don't want to even think about how much they got for a murder..." While Ray explained what Randall just told him, Brass called the officers.

"I can't believe it. Hernandez was with us on our last scene. He seems like such a nice guy." Sara was bummed by this. They had to trust the officers with their lives and now they found out that some of them would murder for a few bucks?

"They're not answering their phones and no one saw them at the station for the last few hours," Brass told them concerned as his phone started ringing.

"This is Brass. Alright. Thank you." He got off the phone, turning to the CSIs again. "They're all assigned to a crime scene the day shift is working on. I'll pay them a visit..." Brass walked out.

At the same time, Catherine got a text message on her phone. "A 419 out in Henderson. Four bodies. Let's go."


	9. Chapter 9

Detective Reed was waiting for the CSIs. "That was quick." She smiled at them. "The bodies are inside, follow me."

When they arrived inside the house they found two bodies, one lying on the floor, the other one lying on the stairs.

"The windows have been shut." Sara noticed.

"As is the back door," Reed added.

An Officer joined them, coming from the basement. "Make that body count five. A man's lying down there."

"I'm on it." Ray said, following the officer down the basement.

"The other ones are upstairs?" Catherine asked, looking up the stairs.

Reed nodded.

Catherine sighed. "Alright boys, how about you take upstairs and Sara and I take over here?"

They all nodded and parted ways.

* * *

><p>Walking up the stairs, Greg and Nick noticed that the windows up here were shut as well.<p>

"Stalker, maybe?" Nick asked.

Greg looked around the hallway. Blood spatter everywhere. Crooked pictures, shattered vases, something bad went down there, he was sure.

They both went into the first bedroom. No dead body. Reaching the second room, they found a young man lying next to the bed. They shared a look and went on to the next room. They found another young man, sitting in a chair, a blood pool underneath him.

Greg patted Nick on the back. He said "I'll take the other room," and went out.

* * *

><p>"Why are the windows shut? Do you think they had a stalker?" Catherine said, looking around the room.<p>

"Probably. How many other reasons are there to shut them? We see it in stalker victim's homes quite often." Sara took pictures of the dead bodies. "What's taking David so long?"

"He called. He's busy at another crime scene but will try to hurry up and come here," Reed said, taking notes, looking a bit distracted.

"Someone stepped into the blood pool." Sara took pictures of the shoe impression next to one of the bodies. The bodies were young men as well. It appears that they all lived together at that house, with pictures of them all over the place.

But it was only four of them on the pictures, who was the dead body in the basement?

* * *

><p>"Could you give me a hand, officer?" Ray said, trying to turn the body around. He was in his late 50ies, obviously older than the other victims.<p>

The officer and Ray turned the victim around to look at the exit wound at the back.

"The bullet went through the chest and exited between the shoulders. I don't see the bullet or the cartridge case, do you?" Ray looked up to the officer.

"No, doc." He took a look around.

"Maybe the killer took it with him..." Ray continued to take pictures of the body.

"Doc..." the officer said, looking around the basement, "Can I ask you a question?"

Ray looked up again, a little surprised. Usually the officers just stood around the crime scene, some would blabber about some trivial stuff to break up the silence every once in a while, but most of them were quiet. "Yeah?"

"Did you ever find out what message Randall was trying to give you?"

* * *

><p>Greg was looking through the room with his flash light. He wanted to wait for David to process the body and in the meantime process the room. There were pictures of the victim everywhere, most of them had him pose with a woman, suggesting that she was his girlfriend.<p>

He checked the bed for bodily fluids and found semen and vaginal fluids, of which he took some samples. He dusted the room for fingerprints when he heard Nick saying something he couldn't understand. "Nick, what did you just say?" he said loud.

Nick went in with a smile on his face. "I was talking to Ray on the phone. He wants to show me something down the basement, I'll be right back."

Greg nodded and continued dusting for prints.

* * *

><p>"Watch it, Nick!" Sara shouted.<p>

"Huh?" Nick looked down to his feet. "Oh, sorry, Sara." After seeing the blood spatter Sara was pointing at he made a big step down the stairs to avoid stepping in it.

"Are you getting nervous?" Sara smiled. "David's busy at another crime scene but will come as soon as he can."

"No." Nick laughed. "That's okay, Ray wanted me to check on something. You two doing alright?"

"Tell Ray to come up here and help us when he's done. He only has one room to process, and we have the whole first floor, it'll take us two forever!" Catherine said from the kitchen.

"Will do!" Nick went down the basement.

* * *

><p>Greg stared at the victim sitting in the chair. He had to make a decision. He was done with the room, what would he do next? Process the victim or start in the corridor? Or in Nick's room? He was gone for half an hour now and the room won't process itself alone, Greg thought, so he decided to process the room first, because the corridor won't take too long and, for Greg, is the most boring room to process.<p>

Nick already did a good job printing the whole room. He found a lot of fingerprints but most of them probably weren't interesting for the case. What Nick had yet to protocol were feet impressions near the body, leading to the door. It looked like someone stepped into blood and then stood right in front of the body. Was it one of the other victims, a witness or the killer? It was an impression of bare feet, so Greg figured it wasn't the killer. But he took a look at all the other bodies except the one in the basement, and they were all wearing shoes.

Something else Greg noticed was that there wasn't any dust on the wooden beams used to shut the windows, but a lot of dust in the room. Who would dust wooden beams but not the rest of the room? They had to be shut a short while ago.

While taking pictures of the dust-free wooden beams he heard steps coming from the stairs.

He left the room with a smile on his face. "What took you so long? I proceeded in your room because I was done in mine, hope you don't mi... Oh, Officer James, I'm sorry, I thought you were Nick," he said a bit embarrassed. He felt weird seeing officer James after suspecting him of being involved with the Dunbrook case.

Officer James smiled at him. "Would you please come downstairs?"

"...Why, is something wrong? I'm not done yet." Greg had a weird feeling.

"Please, come with me..." James grabbed Greg's arm and put his other hand on his gun.


	10. Chapter 10

Arriving downstairs, Reed, Sara and Catherine looked at Greg with fear and concern in their eyes. He was shoved to them by officer James. He saw two other officers pointing their guns at the three women. Neither one of them had their gun in the holster anymore.

"Where's Nick and Ray?" Greg whispered to his colleagues.

"They're still down there... We don't know what's going on," Catherine said, not keeping her eyes off the officers.

The officers whispered. One of them nodded and went over to the CSIs. Pointing his gun at Greg, he said, "Come on," and grabbed him by the arm.

* * *

><p>"Nick..." Greg whispered to himself. When he went down the stairs to the basement, he saw Nick lying on the ground and Ray standing a few feet away from him.<p>

"Get down there!" The officer pushed Greg down the stairs, making him almost lose his balance.

Ray helped to keep him from falling down. "Just stay calm..." he whispered to his younger colleague.

"Make a move and I'll shoot you," the officer that brought Greg down there said, going over to the other officer that accompanied Ray earlier, and talking to him.

"Is he okay?" Greg asked Ray fearful. Nick was bleeding from his head and seemed to be unconscious.

"His breathing and pulse is okay, his pupils look good, too, he should be fine..." Ray said in a calm voice.

"How did this happen?"

"When he came down here, the officer tried to push him down and disarm him, but he fought back... So he hit him with a crowbar that was lying down here."

Greg cringed. That sounded horrible. Being hit in the head himself before, he knew what kind of a headache this could cause.

Ray noticed Greg's painful look. "But he's going to be fine, don't you worry. We just need to find a way to get out of this situation! How are they holding up upstairs?"

Greg got lost in his thoughts for a moment. So much was going through his mind right now. He thought he couldn't go through this kind of situation again. It's just too much to ask for.

"Greg, concentrate! How are they?"

Greg snapped out of it. "Uh... they're okay, I guess."

"How many are up there?" Ray asked rather impatient.

"Two."

"That makes four. We arrived with four officers, there shouldn't be more, then." Ray looked around the basement. "If we just had something to overpower them..."

"Then what?" Greg's voice raised a bit, causing the officers to glance at them for a second, but turning away again. "If we do anything like that... We don't know how the two upstairs would react! We can't risk Sara, Cath and Reed's lives, Ray!"

"Alright, calm down. We'll think of a way out there without risking anybody's life!"

* * *

><p>"I know a kick or two..." Reed whispered to Sara and Catherine. "If it was just one of them, I'd take him down in a second."<p>

"I'm sure you're a good fighter, but you probably can't beat a gun..." Sara said with a faint smile on her face.

"Do you think Randall lied when he told Brass who was involved or are the three he mentioned involved, too?" Reed asked them both.

"I think he lied. He wanted to distract us. We were caught off guard right now because we assumed it was safe out here, that we were able to trust our cops..." Catherine said with disappointment in her voice.

"And what do they have planned for us? Why did they separate us? Why did they take us hostage? Why didn't they just kill us?" Reed kept asking questions. She didn't know half as much about the Dunbrook case and wondered how she got caught in the middle of it.

* * *

><p>One of the officers was talking on the phone. "Alright, let's do this."<p>

Ray's and Greg's hearts started racing. Something was going to happen now, but what? Neither one of them was ready to die, neither of them wanted to die! And yet they both thought this might be their last minutes on earth.

"How do you think this is going to end for you, huh? You'll get the needle! All of you!" Ray said angrily. Just like Reed, he knew a few kicks, too, but also knew he wouldn't be able to even touch one of them without getting a bullet through his head.

The officers both grinned. "I don't think so. Now here's what's going to happen. You three stay down here, the ladies stay upstairs. As you know, the windows and doors are shut, the only way outside is the front door and we won't let you get through it, so we advise you to just stay here for a while, it's for your own good." They both laughed devilish.

* * *

><p>The two officers left the basement and went up to Catherine, Sara and Reed. They nodded as they closed the door, making the women assume the worst. They killed Nick, Ray and Greg.<p>

Although it didn't mean anything anymore, since they were sure they'll meet their end in a few minutes, they were truly affected by the thought of it.

"Alright, ladies. You know the drill. Try to leave the house and you're dead." All four officers laughed and went out.

* * *

><p>Nick slowly gained consciousness. "Where did they go...?" he asked weakly.<p>

Ray and Greg shared a look. What were they supposed to tell him?

"I think they might come back soon..." Ray finally said.

"Sssshhhht... You hear this?" Greg asked them. What he heard was the noise of a crumbling house. Dust was falling from the ceiling.

The three men all looked up to see the ceiling coming down.

* * *

><p>"Quick!" Reed yelled, herding Sara and Catherine under a big, solid desk standing in the kitchen. Mere seconds after they reached it, the ceiling started crumbling down on them.<p>

* * *

><p>Silence. Comfortable silence, the four officers thought. Slowly one of them put the radio out of his pocket, calling the collapse of the house in as David arrived.<p>

Quickly getting out of his car, he ran over to the officers. "Oh my god, what happened? Are the CSIs still in there?" Terror was visible in his eyes.

Two of the officers were panting, faking it, of course. "We just got out! But the CSIs all didn't... Some of them were in the basement, the others at the ground floor. We're waiting for the firemen to arrive now..."

David stood there in disbelief. "I... gotta make a call..." He went back to his car, trying not to cry and called Brass.


	11. Chapter 11

Rolling down from Nick, Greg coughed. Dirt was all over his face and clothes, he had scratches all over his body, but other than that appeared to be okay.

Nick, who was still lying on the floor when the house collapsed, was unconscious again. At least Greg hoped he wasn't already dead. Lucky for them, the basement's ceiling didn't exactly crumble down. It just flapped down a bit, but was stopped by something and didn't fall down entirely. There was a small space where the three men had been standing between the ceiling and the floor which probably saved their lives. Had the ceiling fallen down to the floor, they all would've been crushed.

Only the inlaying of the ceiling and a few chunks of the ceiling came down. One of those chunks landed on top of Nick's arm, but Greg didn't notice. He was trying to wake up Ray, who also was unconscious.

"Ray?" Greg said with a weepy voice. "Ray!" he screamed, trying to shake him awake.

Ray coughed, slowly sitting up. "Are you alright?"

Greg nodded. "Yeah, I think so... And you?"

Ray nodded, too. "How about him?" He pointed at Nick with a fearful look.

Greg tried hard to fight back the tears. "I don't know, Ray... He's breathing, but..." Looking at Nick, he noticed his arm being crushed under a chunk of what used to be the ceiling.

"Okay, I'll take care of it. Can you make your way to Catherine to see if they're okay?"

Greg looked at where the stairway used to be. "I don't think I'll reach them, the stairs are gone..."

"Alright... I'm sure they're fine..." Ray said unconvincing while checking on Nick.

Nick regained consciousness once again. "What happened?" Trying to get up, he noticed he was held down by something and moaned out of pain.

"Don't move, Nick. Your arm is... kind of trapped down there, but we'll get you out of here." Ray took a look at Nick's arm. It still had a quite good blood flow, despite being smushed by a fairly big chunk of concrete, but Ray knew it was only a matter of time that blood flow would stop. "How are you feeling, despite your arm?"

Nick obviously was still coming in and out of consciousness. "I'm alright, I guess... How did this happened?"

"I guess they thought they'll just bury us underneath this house and solve all of their problems," Greg said, trying to find a way out.

"Greg, come over here," Ray said, pointing next to Nick.

Greg quickly got there, trying to smile at Nick.

"On the count of three, alright?" Ray said, looking at both Nick and Greg. "One... two... three!"

They tried to lift the chunk, but it was too heavy for them. They only managed to move it an inch or two, but caused Nick enormous pain with it. His screams could be heard at the ground floor.

* * *

><p>"That's Nick!" Sara said optimistic. It wasn't a good sign that he screamed, but at least it meant he was alive.<p>

Sara and Catherine had scratches on their faces, but other than that were fine. A steel tube punctured Reed's left leg, but it didn't look too serious, just very painful.

"Great..." Reed said strained, "But how are we ever gonna get out of here?"

"We should not move and just wait for help... These bastards took our cell phones, let's just hope someone heard the building crumbling down and called 911..." Catherine said to them.

"We can't just sit around and wait, Catherine. Reed needs medical attention..." Sara whispered to Catherine, but said it loud enough for Reed to hear, anyway.

"Just look around. One wrong move and we could get buried underneath these chunks. We have to wait..." Reed said weakly.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry, Nick, we can't get you out of there. We'll have to wait for help." Ray said exhausted. They tried a few times to get his arm out but failed. It hurt Nick too much and the chunk of concrete was too heavy for Greg and Ray to lift.<p>

Greg sat down on the ground next to Nick. They weren't able to stand, they had to crouch around. He wasn't feeling well, but didn't say anything. Nick needed Ray's attention now, he thought.

"Can you still feel your arm, Nick?" Ray asked concerned.

Nick nodded. It still hurt, which was a good sign, but not a good feeling.

"Good... Hang in there, Nick." Ray patted him on the shoulder. "Greg, maybe we can find something to make it easier for us to lift the chunk, something to use as a lever."

Greg nodded, but didn't look at Ray, nor did he get up and try to find something.

"Greg? Is everything alright?"

He nodded again. "Yeah, I'm fine..."

Ray could hear the exhaustion in Greg's voice. He wasn't sure whether it was physical exhaustion or if he was having a panic attack. "Greg? What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Greg gave Ray a fake smile. "I'm just feeling a little dizzy."

Ray crawled over to Greg to check on him.

"Check his head, he might have a concussion," Nick said with a tired voice.

"No, no. It's okay, really. It'll pass," Greg said, trying to downplay his condition. He knew something was wrong, but he thought whatever it was, Nick was in worse condition.

"Maybe something hit your head when this place fell apart." Ray checked Greg's pupils and checked his head for any cuts or bruises. "Wait a minute... Turn around."

"What is it?" Nick asked, trying to see what Ray was looking at.

"Didn't you feel that?" Ray asked astonished. "You have a pretty big glass fragment stuck in the back of your left shoulder."

"I don't feel it now, either..." Greg said shocked.

"I don't think it's in too deep, but you're probably feeling dizzy from the blood loss. I have to pull it out, alright?" Ray took off his vest to put it on Greg's injury after he pulled the glass out. "On the count of three..."

* * *

><p>The firemen arrived, as did Brass. He kept his hopes up, that someone in there survived. The odds were against them, but he's seen stranger things happen. "Can you tell me what happened?" He turned to the police officers.<p>

* * *

><p>"Do you hear that? I think that's sirens..." Catherine said hopeful. They all hoped help had arrived.<p>

"But now comes the tricky part... The officers probably told them we all died in here... If they're not careful they could bury us under these piles of concrete..." Sara said concerned.

"I'm sure they'll get us all out of here alive..." Catherine had a hopeful look on her face and was almost smiling at the thought of getting out of here.

* * *

><p>"Try to use as much pressure as you can," Ray told Greg, helping him to stop the bleeding. The glass really wasn't stuck in too deep in the back of his shoulder, but deep enough to cause a serious bleeding. Ray was sure Greg would survive it, but it had a toll on him. He was tired and dizzy when Ray needed him to be focused and strong. They couldn't hear the sirens down here and had no idea how long they'd have to stay inside. They just knew they wanted out as soon as possible.<p>

"Is there anything we can do right now?" Nick asked, getting weaker by the minute.

"Just stay strong, Nick." Ray smiled at him. He knew it was only a matter of minutes, maybe Nick had another hour, until he would start losing the feeling in his arm.

The firemen finally started trying to get through to the CSIs. They assumed they all died but operated as if someone in there was still alive. After realizing there was no way to get in from the front door, they started picking up concrete chunks with an excavating machine.

From inside the house it felt like the pieces would keep falling down on the CSIs. Like when the house first started to crumble, dust was trickling down on them.

They all tried to cover their heads, but also tried to cover up Nick, who wasn't able to shield himself from anything that might come falling down.

After a minute, they realized what was happening.

"They're getting us out of here!" Ray exclaimed.

* * *

><p>The firefighter cleared away enough to get through to Catherine, Sara and Reed. It was a small crawling space, but better than nothing.<p>

"We got three alive!" one of the fighters shouted out.

The four officers responsible for this looked surprised. Three will get out alive? They had to leave before anyone knew what was going on.

Brass was talking with officer James right now, but the others thought it would be a good idea to just leave. They decided to leave James behind. There obviously was no honor among thieves, so they just bailed.

* * *

><p>"Her first!" Catherine ordered, pointing at Reed. Sara was the second one to get out. Catherine followed. "There's still three of our men down the basement," she said.<p>

* * *

><p>Noise coming from the door. It opened.<p>

"Hello? Fire Department, are you alright?" One of the firefighter asked, trying to get a look through the door, but all he could see was concrete.

"We're down here! One of us is stuck under a chunk of concrete. We need help to get him out of here," Ray said, trying to get a look at the firefighter, but he as well could only see concrete.

"Alright, sir. Just stay calm, we're getting you out of here."

* * *

><p>"Thank god you're alright! What happened in there?" Brass asked Catherine. He almost didn't believe anyone could make it out of there alive, but all three survived and they said at least Nick was alive, too.<p>

"Where are officer James and the others?" Sara asked angry.

"James is back there, why are y..." Before Brass could finish his sentence, he saw James make a run for it.

* * *

><p>After almost 20 minutes, the firefighter finally reached Nick, Greg and Ray down in the basement. They were equipped to get Nick out of his unfortunate situation and managed to do so without hurting his arm.<p>

"Let's get him to a hospital! Both of them, actually," Ray ordered, helping Greg get out of the house.


	12. Chapter 12

The sun was shining on Nick's face. It had just come up.

They weren't trapped under that house for much more than an hour, but it felt like days. Waking up, Nick felt a little pain in his arm, but it felt much better than it did down in that basement.

He was a bit disorientated. Where was he? Slowly opening his eyes, he saw Greg standing in the room, looking out a window. He appeared to be fine. Was this all a weird dream Nick had? But why was Greg here, then? And that smell, what was that?

He remembered. That's what hospitals smell like. That's where he is.

Greg turned around to smile at Nick, making the scratches on his face visible for Nick, confirming that this experience did happen. "Good morning," he said, still smiling at Nick.

"What time is it?" Nick asked, still a bit tired.

"Just past 6 a.m. How are you feeling?"

"Alright, I guess. Well I feel like a truck ran over my arm, but other than that I'm fine." Nick laughed. "How about you?"

Greg nodded. "They all made it out alive. Reed hurt her leg, but will be fine. Sara, Catherine and Ray only have a few scratches, and my shoulder's fine, too."

"Did they catch the officers?" Nick slowly sat up.

Greg sat down at Nick's bed. "They're on the run... Officer James almost ran over a family with a stolen police car and Brass wasn't able to pursue him any longer. We don't know where they're hiding..."

Nick sighed. "So it's still not over..."

"Don't say that," Greg said with a smile on his face. "I doubt they'll try anything anytime soon. We know who they are, they'll probably keep a low profile from now on."

"Wow," Nick said amazed.

"What?"

"An hour stuck in a basement, is that all to get you your optimism back?" Nick smiled at Greg.

Greg rolled his eyes, but still smiled. "I guess it put everything in perspective. All that time I felt bad, and what did I get from it? It buried me underneath a frickin' house!" Greg couldn't help but laugh. "I want to try to go back to how I was before all of this happened. Being broody all the time didn't help anything. If I have to fear for my life on a weekly basis I might as well enjoy the time in between these situations, right?"

Nick wasn't sure he liked what he heard. It was sure a healthier way to deal with this situation, but to make a U-turn like this after what they went through right now seemed odd. "You're sure you're not having a manic episode or something like that? A seizure, maybe?" Nick teased him, trying to act on Greg's idea. It was a nice idea, but Nick wasn't sure it's easy, or even possible, to realize this plan.

Catherine knocked on the door. "Hey, how's my bravest CSI doing?"

"I'm good Catherine, thanks. I'm so glad you made it out."

Catherine went over to hug Nick carefully and gently touched Greg's arm. "Me, too."

"So what are we gonna do about officer James and his gang?" Nick asked curious.

"Nicky, don't you worry about something like that now. You have to concentrate on getting better. We'll take care of it." Catherine smiled at him, touching his cheek.

"Come on Catherine, I'm fine, we can't waste any time on these guys."  
>"You know, you should follow Reed's example. She's already thinking about what movies to watch when she gets home. She's looking forward to a time out from work," Catherine said smiling while walking out the door.<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

Hi! Did you enjoy the story? Let me know! :)

The next story is called _"End Game"_. You can find it on my profile page, but to make it easier for you to keep track here's a link to the story.

**net/s/6969581/1/** (just put the fanfiction-url in front of it, I can't publish it that way, I'm sorry!)

**THANK YOU** for reading and hopefully loving my story. Big Love,

pikapikatchu


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